Congressman Hall talks with seniors in Monroe about health reform

MONROE — Rep. John Hall faced angry and skeptical questioners Thursday during his latest public appearance to discuss the government's plans to reform health care.

BY CHRIS McKENNA

MONROE — Rep. John Hall faced angry and skeptical questioners Thursday during his latest public appearance to discuss the government's plans to reform health care.

Two hundred people crowded into the Monroe Senior Center for the hourlong midday session, which Hall, D-Dover Plains, had set up strictly as a meeting with the Jolly Seniors of Monroe before agreeing to turn the event into a public forum.

The result was a sometimes raucous gathering that resembled the town-hall-style meetings other members of Congress have held, but which Hall has bypassed in favor of more targeted health-care discussions.

"Where is all the money coming from?" demanded Bill Barker of Harriman, suggesting that extending health coverage to millions of uninsured Americans would worsen the ballooning federal deficit.

"And why should we trust the government that says we should just pass this stimulus package and unemployment won't go above 7.9 percent? Well, John, you know what? Unemployment is now 9.4 percent."

Hall replied that the expanded coverage would be paid for with an additional tax on the richest Americans and by cost-saving changes in Medicare and Medicaid. He insisted he will oppose any plan that increases the deficit.

Part of Hall's job was to reassure the senior citizens that a health-care overhaul wouldn't hurt their Medicare coverage, which he did by listing ways it would be improved — such as the elimination of co-payments and deductibles.

About 90 Jolly Seniors sat listening at tables in a semicircle around him, bingo cards ready for when he finished. The rest of the audience stood or sat against the walls. Few in the hot room seemed at all jolly.

"We're tired of the rhetoric. We're not stupid," said Michelle Hieronymi of Monroe. "You will change the framework of the country. You're taking away our freedoms. ... I don't know if we're even going to get to vote next year."

Several times, Hall used family anecdotes to illustrate flaws in the health-care system, most poignantly when he described his dying brother overhearing a doctor ask, "How many more pints of blood is this project worth?"

He countered distrust of government with distrust of private insurers, emphasizing reforms that would curb abuses in that industry — an argument echoed by Chris Lee of Mountainville, the only one of 12 speakers who supported reform.

"I would so much prefer my health care to be in the hands of people who don't profit by denying me health care," Lee said.